Don’t turn it off!

 

Another entertaining and considered article today by Charlie Brooker (you can read the whole thing here), really enjoy his column in the Guardian. His most recent musings were on the BNP’s latest political broadcast; unfortunately (I think) I missed the production but thought it was worth a viewing considering Brooker’s assessment. And the fact that he described designers as having a “thoughtful and inquisitive nature”. 

He described the graphics that accompanied the BNP’s ad as “gaudy and cheap, like a bad pizza menu”, a perfect description I think. The production value is terrible, and like Brooker says, if the BNP were the greatest British party, they’d have the greatest designers working with them, but they don’t.

The whole thing is pretty awful, from the scripts and sound quality to the colour combinations and graphics… god knows what the little blue men represent! It’s pretty shoddy, summed up by the opening line by Nick Griffin… please, please, please “don’t turn it off”. If racism and bigotry isn’t enough to make most people turn off, I don’t know what is. See what you think.

Comments

[Steve Leard]

A powerful post Ed. I'm also passionately against the BNP, this article is definitely worth a read.

I do think though that for all the poor crafting and design of the broadcast, the one thing the article neglects to say is that even with this shoddy presentation, the BNP are gaining inroads into the political system in Britain.

The stupidity of our MPs relating to expenses and the financial climate we find ourselves in only helps their cause, and I'm concerned that soon we will have a BNP MP, a first for our country to have an elected Fascist MP.

The camera work, graphics and scripting maybe poor, but with their extreme messages that appeal to the increasing disenfranchised members of our society, does it really matter? The proof that people are watching it is when I can see how many people have searched for this BNP video on Google and ended up watching it here on DesignYak, It's quite scary.

[Ed Read]

I absolutely agree. The progress the BNP has been making over recent years is definitely worrying. Of course they are going to exploit recent events regarding MPs expense claims and try to offer security to future generations employment prospects when there is currently such uncertainty.

But the fact that the production looks so amateurish should really be a representation of what the party is offering, if people are looking to them for solutions, this should be a visualisation of what they’ll get. To quote Charlie Brooker again, “don’t vote for those nasty slick parties. Vote for a shoddy one!”

People are always going to look for alternatives considering the situation we currently find ourselves in, and as a result this video is going to be seen whether it’s on the Yak or Youtube, my hope is that people will take note of the clumsily read lines and strange visuals and realise the BNP is not the answer.

Compare the Swastika adopted by the Nazi party to these strange blue men or the logo on the BNP’s website, the feelings it instantly generates demonstrates how emotive political imagery can be. In my opinion the shoddy craftsmanship displayed by the BNP only goes to show their ineptitude and inability to offer any kind of alternative.

[Cat Power]

He looks like a toad – the ugliest of all amphibians

[Banner Stands]

There are so many ways to promote a business both online and offline. Each have their own set of advantages and disadvantages, and a business owner should test as many of them out as possible to find out if it's worth the time and/or money investment.

[Biia]

Agreed: the movie posters are lame bnyeod measure, regardless of politics. And including Griffin is a very, very cheap shot. I'm sure we could find unpleasant individuals to feature on the other side. I'm not sure why the BNP is opposed to AV or PR: surely they'd pick up some votes from UKIP and Tories.